Workshop on Replication of a Community-Engaged Educational Ecosystem

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The National Academy of Engineering identified solving “complex social issues” as a grand challenge for the 21st century. This project aims to serve the national interest by preparing engineers to work in interdisciplinary teams that can address such complex challenges. The University of Notre Dame, through the Center for Civic Innovation, led prior work in Indiana known as the Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem project. Through this project, students and faculty from universities, community colleges, and high school worked together with community groups, local businesses, and city government on complex problems such as storm water management and the reuse of abandoned properties. During their work, the students developed important STEM skills, as well as 21st century skills, such as critical thinking and collaboration. This workshop will explore how to replicate the successes of the Bowman Creed Educational Ecosystem in other deindustrialized cities. Exposing undergraduate engineering students to interdisciplinary and socially relevant problem solving has the potential to inform students’ career choices and preparation as engineers. In addition, to have successful engineering careers, engineering undergraduates must learn to work with professionals across sectors that include non-governmental organizations, government agencies, and industry. The proposed workshop will lay the groundwork to replicate a strategy for accomplishing both goals. Specifically, the workshop will explore how to replicate Indiana’s Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem in communities in Youngstown, Ohio and Erie, Pennsylvania. Participants will include representatives of academia, city government, and other community partners to discuss evolution of the Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem, and to generalize the Community-Engaged Educational Ecosystem model, build a community of practice, identify barriers to replication, and determine funding models. Workshop organizers plan to disseminate results through technical reports, a meeting of the Metrolab Network (an organization devoted to civic and university partnerships), and a conference presentation at a gathering such as the American Society for Engineering conference. This project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR) Program, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to improve and transform STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.